Exploration and development firm Keliber has published the results of a definitive feasibility study (DFS) for its lithium project, in Finland, confirming its financial and technical feasibility.

The DFS endows the lithium project with a net present value, using an 8% discount, of €295-million, a pretax internal rate of return of 24% and a payback period of 5.5 years.

The study establishes a capital expenditure estimate of €255-million for the mine, concentrator and chemical plant.

Keliber will use the DFS to qualify the lithium project for construction financing. The company reports that it is progressing negotiations for a combination of debt and equity funding for the project.

The DFS estimates that the project has potential to generate total life of operations revenue of €2.28-billion and operating cash flow €1.21-billion.

Based on current ore reserves, the life-of-mine is 13 years. The project is extended to 20 years by purchasing spodumene concentrates from third parties for seven years after the mine is exhausted.

"The successful completion of the DFS is a crucial milestone and will form a strong base for the company to become the first vertically integrated European lithium producer located near the fast-developing European lithium markets.

“The market for lithium products is extremely strong and demand is forecast to grow rapidly throughout the next decade. At the beginning of the 2030s, lithium consumption is estimated to be seven times higher than current consumption,” says Keliber Oy CEO Pertti Lamberg.

Keliber’s flowsheet selection for the project is a conventional spodumene concentrator, conversion of alpha to beta spodumene in a rotary kiln and a soda pressure leach process to produce lithium carbonate.

The 600 000 t/y concentrator plant will be located in Kalavesi Kaustinen and the chemical plant for lithium carbonate production will be in Kokkola Industrial Park and will produce 11 000 t/y.

The soda pressure leaching process for the lithium carbonate production enables production of battery grade (over 99.5%) lithium carbonate.

The lithium carbonate production process will deliver two by-products, analcime sand and quartz-feldspar sand, which could potentially have a commercial value.

The clean-tech soda pressure leaching process is planned and designed in close cooperation with Outotec.

“Our planned investment is one of the biggest investments in Central Ostrobothnia for decades. Our future production will directly employ about 140 people, with the multiplier effect on employment being even greater,” says chief production officer

Finland’s Keliber has raised more than €10-million through directed share issues to current shareholders and personnel of the company, with the Finnish Minerals Group now the company’s largest shareholder.

The share issue directed to the current shareholders of the company was oversubscribed, the lithium project developer reported on Friday and noted that Finnish Minerals Group has more than 24% of the number of shares and voting rights of Keliber.

Subsequent of the directed share issue and the incentive issue for the new permanent personnel of the company, the total number of outstanding shares in Keliber is 1 290 867, of which 160 000 are Series A shares and 1 130 867 Series B shares.

“We are very pleased with the results of the share issues. We continue our work to secure the required permits and commence detailed engineering for the construction of our lithium project. We also have strong focus in the implementation of our product and market strategy and negotiations with our potential customers,”

The production operations comprise the continuous processing of concentrated lithium brine, sourced from the operational evaporation ponds at the Project area, within theindustrial scale pilot plant using the Company’s proprietary and exclusive chemical process to produce 99.5% lithium carbonate product.

The company will produce and store the Li2CO3 product until ready for shipment, then arrange the transport of product parcels for sale under the Sales Agreement executed in March 2019.
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The Company continues working towards the 2,000tpa modular operation as the next step in the scale-up development of the Project. In addition to expecting regulatory approvals for this stage of work in due course following recent meetings, Company executives will be attending strategic meetings in Japan this month to further advance interest from such strategic parties for product off-take and the potential modular scale and/or full commercial project development with associated capex funding/investment.

The project is expected to produce 20,200 tons (t) of lithium carbonate in addition to 173,000t of boric acid a year during its 30-year operational life. The project construction is anticipated to create approximately 500 jobs.

Pre-feasibility study of the project was completed in October 2018, while the definitive feasibility study (DFS) is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2019

Eramet has approved the development of a lithium mine in Argentina as the French group pursues a shift towards minerals used to power electric vehicles to meet burgeoning demand.

The miner expects to invest 525 million euros ($597 million) in the Centenario deposit with the aim of producing 24,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent per year in a first phase that could start at the end of 2021, it said on Monday.

The estimates were in line with previous guidance given by the company earlier this year.

A final investment decision would be made at the earliest in the fourth quarter of this year once financing has been obtained, it said in a statement.

Eramet shares were up 2% by 0834 GMT, one of the top performers on Paris’ SBF-120 equity index.

The Centenario lithium deposit contains drainable resources of nearly 10 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent and the expected production costs for Eramet would be among the most competitive in the sector, added Eramet.

The investment comes as European authorities and companies are trying to develop large-scale production of electric vehicle batteries.

Eramet has said it has been approached by potential partners but has not committed to any of the battery alliances formed by European firms.

Shares in Nemaska Lithium Inc soared on Friday after the company announced it has received a letter of intent for a $460m (C$600m) investment from specialist mining investment firm, Pallinghurst.

Pallinghurst is contemplating C$200m private placement at C$0.25 per share and a stand-by purchase agreement to fully guarantee the successful completion of a rights offering of up to C$400m at the same issue price, according to a press release.

The funding will enable Nemaska to complete the construction of its Whabouchi hard rock lithium mine in the James Bay region and Shawinigan processing plant north of Montreal.

After a trading halt was lifted, shares in Nemaska gained as much as 45% to $0.32 a share in Toronto, lifting the market value of the developer to $260m. The stock had been under pressure since February when Nemaska said it was facing a budget overrun of C$375m on the project.

Last year, Nemaska arranged $1.1 billion financing for the lithium project. SoftBank’s Vision Fund, the largest tech investment fund ever assembled, entered the mining sector for the first time in May 2018, buying up to 9.9% of the Quebec City-based company.

The Cinovec lithium-tin project is a high-grade underground deposit located in Prague, Czech Republic. It is the biggest lithium deposit in Europe and one of the biggest tin resources being developed in the world.

European Metals Holdings fully owns the project and is also developing it with an investment of £383m ($482m).

Pre-feasibility study for the Cinovec lithium-tin project was completed in April 2017. The average rate of production at the project will be 1.68 million tons per annum (Mtpa), through its anticipated mine life of 21 years.

Cinovec lithium-tin project location, geology, and mineralisation

The Cinovec lithium-tin project is situated approximately 100km to the north-west of Czech Republic’s capital Prague, on the German border.

The deposit is associated with the Cinovec Zinnwald granite cupola and comprises irregular metasomatic greisen, which hosts quartz, zinnwaldite, fluorite, and adularia-K feldspar.

The thin and flat greisen zones enclosing quartz veins that are up to 2m-thick are part of the Cinovec deposit. The minerals contained in the deposit are cassiterite, scheelite, zinnwaldite, and wolframite.

Cinovec lithium-tin project reserves

The Cinovec lithium-tin project is expected to contain probable ore reserves of 34.5Mt graded at 0.65% Li2O and 0.09% Sn.

The indicated and inferred resources are estimated to be 695.9Mt, graded at 0.195% Li. Contained reserves are estimated to be seven million tonnes (Mt) of lithium carbonate-equivalent (LCE), 101,635t of tungsten, and 278,360t of tin.

Mining at Cinovec lithium-tin project
The mining method proposed to be used at the Cinovec lithium-tin project is long hole open stoping method. The ore body of the underground deposit is flat or shallow-dipping and will be mined with pillars support in addition to cement paste back-fill.

The mine will be accessed by two declines, with the first one comprising a conveyor to transport the material from the underground primary crusher to surface. The second decline will be used as a service decline for mineworkers, material, and as an intake airway.

Processing at Cinovec lithium-tin project
The Cinovec lithium-tin project is expected to provide 360,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of mica concentrate to the lithium carbonate and hydroxide plants (LPP).

The processing plant will use a two-stage crushing plant, and screened in a double-deck vibratory screen.

The run-of-mine (ROM) ore will then be passed through a comminution plant for resizing to a particle size distribution (PSD) ideal for lithium recovery.

The product will be then conveyed to the beneficiation plant, which will produce lithium-rich magnetic stream (mica-concentrate) through the separation of paramagnetic zinnwaldite. It will also treat the non-magnetics by-product stream using gravity, flotation, magnetic, and electrostatic separation processes to produce tin and tungsten product.

The concentrate will be mixed with limestone, waste gypsum, and recycled sodium sulphate before roasting to convert the lithium into a lithium potassium sulphate. The product will be then leached to dissolve the contained lithium sulphate values.

Crude lithium carbonate is then precipitated from the purified leach solution through alum precipitation.

The beneficiation plant will also treat the non-magnetics by-product stream with gravity, flotation, magnetic, and electrostatic separation to produce tin and tungsten product.

Potassium sulphate, which is produced as a by-product, will be dried and packed for sale. The battery-grade lithium carbonate will be further processed to produce battery-grade lithium hydroxide.

Infrastructure facilities

The Cinovec lithium-tin project can be accessed through both road and rail. It is located near industrial and chemical plants with support services in Czech and Germany.

The site infrastructure includes a 22kV transmission line, and a well established water and communications network.

Underground infrastructure facilities will include mine service water systems, electrical reticulation system, control systems and instrumentation, trackless workshops, and underground crushers, tips, and conveyors.

Contractors involved

European Metals prepared the project PFS with support from independent consultants such as Widenbar and Associates, Bara Consulting, Ausenco, and Hatch Associates

An oversupply of lithium in 2019, has caused leading producer Albermarle to cancel plans for 125,000 tonnes of additional processing capacity

US-based Albermarle will delay plans to add 125,000 tonnes of lithium processing capacity, it was announced today.

The world’s top producer of the commodity — which has seen prices fall 30% since the end of 2018 — said an oversupply of the metal is at fault for driving down its value.

This oversupply is primarily due to the initial surge in demand between 2016 and 2018 following a number of orders relating to electric vehicles, which has since tailed off — a trend that has also dramatically damaged cobalt’s performance in 2019.

Analysts predict the global volumes of lithium, which is key to the construction of electric-vehicle batteries, will increase from the 28,000 tonnes produced last year to 68,000 tonnes in 2019, before reaching 146,000 tonnes in 2021

Lithium miner Argosy Minerals Ltd said on Friday it has signed a preliminary agreement with a unit of Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp for the supply of lithium carbonate product.

Under the terms of the initial non-binding agreement, Argosy will supply metals trader Mitsubishi Corp RtM Japan Ltd with 2,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of lithium carbonate product from its flagship Rincon Lithium project in Argentina.

The agreement will be for a three-year period, with an option to extend for a further two years, the company said in a statement.

With the commercial terms of the deal chalked out, Argosy said the two companies will continue ongoing talks to enter a detailed definitive offtake supply deal.

Argosy added that it would continue to prioritise efforts to secure capital expenditure funding for the development of a 2,000 tpa production plant at the Rincon project, in which it owns a 77.5% stake.

Chile’s state-owned Codelco , the world’s top copper miner, will decide by early 2020 whether to pursue a joint lithium project with foreign-backed miner Salar Blanco, a company executive told Reuters on Friday.
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